Cyber Crime- The Techno Terror

Many of you reading this might be wondering as to what exactly is cyber crime? Well, the latest techno development is crime through internet or computer . Surprising as it may sound, some of your activities on the computer right now might be considered criminal!.

Many of you reading this might be wondering as to what exactly is cyber crime? Well, the latest techno development is crime through internet or computer . Surprising as it may sound, some of your activities on the computer right now might be considered criminal!

The most common form of cyber crime committed against person includes cyber-stalking, cyber squatting, child pornography, sharing of obscene materials and harassment through e-mail. Oh yes! If you are visiting your ex-girlfriend/ ex-boyfriend’s profile repeatedly that will very well be called cyber-stalking.Identity theft that is creation of fake profiles or websites too is a crime.

The second category of cyber crime relates to property. Unauthorized use of someone’s computer, computer vandalism, piracy, transmission of virus and not to forget the age-old hacking and cracking all come under this category.

The third category of cyber-crime is against Government. What can be an easier way to gain access to all kinds of people than the internet?? The growth of internet has proved to be an easy medium to terrorize citizens and black-mail the government. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when someone “cracks” into a government/military website.

After nine internet years of waiting, the government finally got into action and India had its first Cyber Law, the Information Technology Act, 2000. That’s good news coz now you can get the culprit punished if you have been a victim of cyber-crime.

Go to your nearest police station and file a FIR against him and he may as well be behind bars! The penalty for cyber-crime is up to a million depending on the gravity of the crime. But hold on, there’s a catch to it! This can happen only if you know the identity of the person and if the person is a citizen of India. God help you if the person stays abroad!

Until the government figures out how to deal with these couple of grey areas, all I can say is keep your anti-viruses, browsers and firewalls updated, Ids double-locked and avoid licking on unknown web advertisements.